Pedophile ex-priest's parole being fought

Manya A. BrachearTribune reporter

Convinced there are other victims who have not come forward, prosecutors and parishioners at St. Agatha Roman Catholic Church spent the last two years trying to keep convicted sex-offender Daniel McCormack locked up after his prison sentence.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County prosecutors filed a petition Wednesday to have McCormack, 40, incarcerated under the Illinois Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act. A hearing on the motion will be held Friday, the day he would have been released on parole.

Parishioners at St. Agatha have written letters imploring the state to keep McCormack behind bars and away from their children.

"Dan McCormack has done a great deal of damage to many young men," said parishioner Julia Bledsoe, who in a letter pleaded with the parole board not to release the former priest convicted in 2007 of abusing five children in church facilities.

Based on records from police, the Archdiocese of Chicago, college and the state Department of Corrections, a forensic psychiatrist diagnosed McCormack with pedophilia and recommended civil commitment.

That recommendation came as a relief to Gloria Seabrook, 61, whose stomach turned recently when she saw a photo of McCormack with her grandchildren after their First Communion.

"I'm glad they're going to hold him and evaluate him," she said. "I would be afraid that he could worm his way back into other people's lives. ... We trusted him."